1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display substrate accommodating tray used for transporting a display substrate such as, for example, a glass substrate used for producing a display panel for a liquid crystal display device or the like; and an apparatus and method for removing the display substrate from such a display substrate accommodating tray.
2. Description of the Related Art
A display panel for a liquid crystal display device usually includes a pair of glass substrates opposed to each other and sealed together, and a liquid crystal material sealed between the pair of glass substrates. In order to produce such a display panel, glass substrates are transported to a display panel production plant. For transporting the glass substrates, a glass substrate accommodating box for accommodating a plurality of glass substrates is usually used. Glass substrates are used in display panels of various types of display devices as well as liquid crystal display devices. The above-mentioned type of glass substrate accommodating box is also used for transporting glass substrates used for the various types of display devices other than liquid crystal display devices.
The same type of glass substrate accommodating box is used for transporting glass substrates with electrodes and the like formed thereon as half-finished products.
Recently, glass substrates having a thickness of 0.7 mm or less are widely used for various types of display panels. The planar area of the glass substrates which are carried to the display panel production plants is increasing, and even glass substrates having a side length of 1.3 m or greater are used.
Such a large and thin glass substrate is easily warped. When a plurality of such glass substrates are accommodated in the box, the glass substrates may be warped and contact each other, and break during transportation. In order to avoid this, it is necessary to keep an appropriate distance between the glass substrates in the box.
For example, a glass substrate having a thickness of 0.7 mm and a side length of 1.3 m or greater, when supported along the periphery thereof with a support having a width of 20 to 30 mm, may be warped by 90 mm or greater at the center thereof. In a glass substrate accommodating box, it is necessary to keep a distance of 100 mm or greater between the glass substrates in the box.
A glass substrate is usually removed from a glass substrate accommodating box using a glass substrate adsorption hand. The glass substrate adsorption hand has a pair of flat adsorption pads. Each adsorption pad needs to be inserted between two adjacent glass substrates, which requires a space for inserting the adsorption pad. A flat adsorption pad usually has a thickness of about 20 mm. Therefore, the distance between the glass substrates in the box needs to be the sum of a distance sufficient for preventing the glass substrates from contacting each other even when the glass substrates are warped and a distance of about 20 mm for inserting the adsorption pad.
Due to the necessary space between two adjacent glass substrates, the number of glass substrates which can be accommodated in a glass substrate accommodating box having a prescribed size is limited. This lowers the space efficiency for transportation and storage, i.e., the number of glass substrates which can be accommodated per unit volume.
The space efficiency can be increased to some extent by increasing the size of glass substrate accommodating boxes so that a greater number of glass substrates can be accommodated in each box and thus a smaller number of boxes are required for accommodating the same number of glass substrates. However, a glass substrate having a side length of 1.3 m or greater is as heavy as about 5 kg. A glass substrate accommodating box accommodating a large number of (for example, 20) glass substrates may not be able to be carried by one worker.
In order to solve these problems, Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 10-287382 discloses a substrate tray cassette for accommodating one glass substrate. The substrate tray cassette has a bottom section having a lattice structure. The substrate tray cassette is structured such that a plurality of substrate tray cassettes can be stacked vertically. Such a substrate tray cassette allows a large and thin glass substrate to be accommodated without being warped and thus without being broken during transportation. Since a greater number of substrate tray cassettes can be stacked vertically for transportation and storage, the space efficiency can be improved.
However, this substrate tray cassette has the following problems. The accommodated glass substrate is supported by resin pins, and a pair of adsorption pads of a glass substrate adsorption hand are put into the space below the glass substrate. Such a space for the adsorption pads increases the size of the substrate tray cassette. In addition, the lattice structure of the substrate tray cassette presents a problem in terms of the rigidity thereof, and thus the number of substrate tray cassettes which can be stacked vertically is limited.